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Iraqi air force bombs Islamic State hideouts in mountains

There have been several Islamic State attacks in rural areas of northern Iraq recently.

ISIS damage
This picture taken on Nov. 19, 2021, shows a broken tombstone damaged by Islamic State (IS) group fighters during their occupation of northern Iraq, at the Chaldean Monastery of St George in Mosul. — ZAID AL-OBEIDI/AFP via Getty Images

The Iraqi air force conducted airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) in the Hamrin mountains today, the military announced. 

Iraqi pilots in Czech-made Aero L-159 Alca fighter jets bombed hideouts and equipment belonging to IS in the mountains, which are located in the northern Diyala province. The targets were successfully destroyed, the Security Media Cell said on Facebook. 

Iraqi and Kurdistan Region forces have attributed several recent attacks to IS. In early October, a man detonated himself in a vehicle in the western Anbar province. Later that month, IS attacked a Shiite tribe in Diyala, which prompted retaliatory attacks on Sunni civilians in the area. IS also killed two of the Kurdistan Region’s peshmerga soldiers in an ambush in late October. 

The Iraqi air force regularly strikes purported Islamic State targets and areas used by unspecified “terrorist” groups. They also bombed a tunnel used for weapons smuggling in the northern Salah ad-Din province last week. 

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